[Spambayes] Maybe it's too late...

[David McNab]

On Sat, 2003-08-23 at 10:15, Thomas Juntunen wrote:
<snip>
> I am not all that qualified to say, but the description of this patent
> -- filed in 1998 -- sounds a lot like the Bayesian, or naive Bayesian,
> technique to me.
<snip>

Software patents, by their very nature, are aggressively and malignantly
cancerous towards the open source community, in spirit and in practice.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were already patents for such
elementary programming elements as classes, functions, or many basic
concepts on which Python is built.

IMHO, there are two ways to approach the whole issue of patents:

1) Go into fear and trepidation. Every time you think of an algorithm,
or write more than five lines of code, do an extensive search of the
patents databases to make sure you're not infringing. Every time you do
something even mildly creative, patent it. If someone does the same
thing elsewhere, sue them (or if you don't have the money, sell your
patent to someone who does). Buy in to the whole shebang.

2) Think, create, code, as if software patents don't even exist. If you
receive a C&D letter, transfer the hosting of the software to a
jurisdiction that doesn't entertain this perverse over-extension of
intellectual property.

It is by the fear and trepidation of users cringing under the patents
threat, and abdicating their personal power one by one, that the menace
will succeed.

It is by millions of open source developers practising civil
disobedience that the software patents regime will be exposed as the
farce it is.

The more patent-infringing code that hits the public domain and
open-source domain, and the more establishment organisations that
benefit from this code, the greater the pressure will be for a
comprehensive repeal of this stupidity.

    First they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up 
    'cause I wasn't a Jew.
       And then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't 
    speak up because I wasn't a Catholic.
       And they came for the trade unionists. I didn't speak 
    up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
       They came for the Communists. I didn't speak up 
    'cause I wasn't a Communist.
       And by the time they came for me, there was nobody 
    left to speak up.

Regards
David